Musings

So Uganda (like Nigeria, Russia and other backward thinking regimes) finally signed the law that consigns its gay citizens to the ghetto. Yes, let brimstone fall from angry heaven and devour those “disgusting” sexual deviants. It’s all for the children. When African and Russian leaders are busy looting their countries’ funds and salting them where those funds are protected by the West’s legislative framework these “leaders” are of course also thinking about the children: the children starved of funds that should be building, for them (I mean, the children), a better country.

Below are some quotes from Museveni’s gay-baiting speech showing the abysmal quality of leadership and thinking generally exhibited by African leaders and, let’s be frank, the religiously devout.

“Africans are flabbergasted by exhibitionism of sexual acts”.
He probably means disgusted. if instead they are ‘astonished’ what’s the issue?

“I am not able to understand the logic of the Western Culture … Since Western societies do not appreciate politeness”. He doesn’t understand except when he and his ministers are lining their pockets with aid money and stuffing stolen funds in western banks.

He then quotes a well-known Swedish study that surmises genes account for a third of the homosexuality in a sample of identical twins. For Museveni that proves being gay is a choice. We share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees and yet that errant 2% makes all the difference between being a chimp and being human. It doesn’t take much difference in genes to make a hell of a lot of difference in a living organism. Oops, not the kind of reasoning one expects from god-believers since they, out of hand, reject any science that conflicts with their holy books.

“let me .. warn our people publicly about the wrong practices indulged in and promoted by some of the outsiders. One of them is oral sex”. Apparently God doesn’t like this. Yes that mythical deity written up by some desert people a few thousand years ago and still believed in by billions of people. I am flabbergasted.

And then finally from Museveni:
“We reject the notion that somebody can be homosexual by choice; that a man can choose to love a fellow man; that sexual orientation is a matter of choice.”

What then is his problem? But then he goes on: “Since my original thesis that there may be people who are born homosexual has been disproved by science, …”

For any nation Supreme Court justices are way too important to not participate fully in issues. If Thomas has had enough of the bench one would think he’d have enough respect for the bench to step down. There should be a process to ease him out if he won’t but who can move on the eight Olympians atop the mount?

I’m re-watching the old Cosmos series on YouTube, awestruck by the majesty and magnificence of the story of our universe. Fourteen billion years of an unravelling mystery that will still be ongoing fourteen billion earth years hence when, in all likelihood, our species would be gone; and perhaps [almost] like Sparta with no trace whatsoever that we were ever here. The sheer awesome-ness of it all.

Black is as chocolate; dark and beguiling and like good chocolate goes straight to the brain. Like gold it glitters but like the night it can hide pleasures unknown or signal fear. Some say it’s as good as gold signalling exclusivity and power. Black summons our old nemesis, Death. Black is the colour of my skin; is it a colour or the absence of light? Black is infused with much symbolism. Black can be scary. Black can also be beautiful. Alas not every person with copious melanin believes “Black is beautiful”. For some of our “sisters”, lighter is better; not just equal and different; but better. Do black men prefer lighter? Some will. Some won’t. But a woman who’s gone from black to powder surely loses the allure; the shine; the glitter; the refractive qualities when well-oiled. Besides, bleached skin looks surreal, unreal and almost always quite disgusting.

“Whitenicious is the skin care line launched by Nigerian-Cameroonian pop singer Dencia. Dencia who once had Naomi Campbell chocolate skin is now as pale Lady Gaga. [Whitenicious] is being marketed as a “fast acting, 7 day dark spot remover” that targets “dark spots caused by anything from acne, wounds, hyper pigmentation bruises.” Whitenicious sold out [in the US] in days at $50-$150 a pop. Studies show that 77% of Nigerian women use skin lighteners regularly, but it’s not just Nigerians lightening their skin.”

The cause of natural disasters? Acting “arrogantly against the Gospel”. This is the judgement of one man (see below) but one that chimes very much so it seems with many christians. It’s the age-old conservative control mechanism: the reason why things are going wrong is because we deviated from the path laid down by God. This is a recurrent theme in the Bible and is a powerful deterrent to sinning. It’s also a cunning implantation of guilt; for anytime something goes wrong it’s probably because one only prayed four times instead of five or because one masturbated last night or something equally silly.

Why is there so much crackpot thinking from religious adherents? One would think believing in God would make believers smarter (i.e. with God passing on his smarts to his children) but interestingly, belief in God frequently produces the opposite. Critical thinking goes to sleep and the plains are open for stupid and rash zealots to spread as much hatred and sloppy thinking around often with threats of violence against sinners or anyone who challenges their (i.e. God’s) authority. People are always quick to link outcomes to causes that suit their purposes whether in fact true or ridiculous (“The interview went well, It must be my lucky blue tie and red socks”).

The promotion of gay marriage is certainly providing traditionalists with explanations for the decline of mankind. Next year, no doubt, it will be something else. If floods are God’s way of showing his displeasure he is one grumpy old fart.

Keep on walking tall, hold your head up high
Lay your dreams right up to the sky
Sing your greatest song
And you’ll keep, going, going on

(Hey) Just wait and see someday we’ll all be free. (Yeah)
Take it from me, Someday we’ll all be free
(It won’t be long) Take it from me someday we’ll all be free
Take it from me, take it from me, take it from me

Waking up at 11.00am.
Admittedly this is after going to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning. The problem with waking up so late is how it screws up the rest of the working day and if one then goes to the gym and then does lunch — it’s evening before any real work gets done.

Skipping the gym.
See 1. above. I’ve been known to (happily) skip the gym to make up for waking up late and to be able to do some work during the winter sunlight hours when my favourite coffee shops are still open. However if I’m to be honest I do need the cardio so as not to puff dangerously after running for the bus. It’s also nice to show off some muscle. Yes, vanity!

Skipping jujitsu practice.
See 1. and 2. above. The excuse here (and always) is that since I woke up late and then had to go to the gym I really couldn’t afford 3 hours of attending to jujitsu. Hmmm. The only way I’m going to get my second Dan is to go to jujitsu. No more excuses.

Eating a whole packet of Hobnob biscuits.
I swear it’s what they put in the oats. I can’t stop eating the damn things. The cure: I’m deleting hobnobs from my short and long-term memory. Don’t even mention the letter H.

Facebook.
As I get older Time is the one thing (more than youth) I want but can’t get any more of. Let’s be frank, time spent on FB is mostly pissed down the toilet of life. Solution: time limits – log in, log out, max 15 minutes; and not more than twice a day.

Avoiding household chores.
If I had the money I’d get a cleaner … wishes, wishes. I do like a clean and tidy home; I think better, I work faster (I can find things easily) and I love relaxing in a place that’s not been hit by a tornado. But it takes soooo looong to clean. If I had the money ….

Taking shit from people.
if you don’t stand up for yourself or complain then people dump shit on your head. You would think that everyone would be really nice, like Grandma advised, and would treat everyone else well? What planet have I been living on? On Planet Earth, give people an inch and they take a mile. It’s true!

Taking shit from myself.
‘Nuff said. No more Mr WouldaCouldaShoulda.

Spending money knowing I’ll be paid at month end.
Er … not now I’m self-employed. Now I have a budget(!!) and it’s so very painful but it is an absolute imperative. 😦

Listening to the same old iTunes playlists.
Confession: I am one of those guys who maintain vehemently that music has gone rapidly downhill since every Tom, Dick and Sally could put out a machine made formulaic record. It’s so bad that I can no longer dance to “Dance” music – that bewildering juxtaposition of noise that the people who dance to are either in music videos, look drunk or are on some other wavelength. And what’s the thing with Justin Bieber? He is very pretty but a music superstar? Doggone it. [Rant over I promise] Yet every so often last year I’d hear a record and go “That’s good!”. So this year I’m gonna go explore and find me some cool new music.